It's the Little Things
by electric gurrl
Summary: "I know you hate surprises, but you kind of hate everything so..." — Mai x Zuko. O/S.


A/N: This is an AU in which Zuko was never banished.

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**It's the Little Things**

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"Mai, there's someone here for you!" shouts Mai's mother in her shrill, affected, false voice.

_Ugh_. That means the visitor must be someone important. Despite the fact that Mai is asleep, in her bed, lacking make-up and pants. It happens to be her birthday, and she happens to be trying to avoid that fact and avoid all other people for the entirety of the day until she goes out to dinner with Ty Lee and Azula tonight.

"Tell them I need to put on pants!" Mai replies loudly, not bothering to hide how aggravated she is as she rubs her eyes and forcing herself out of bed.

Mai gets mostly dressed, does not bother with make-up or her hair, which is sticking up as if she rubbed it all over a koala-sheep wool sweater. And she walks slowly down the stairs and to the door, where an incredibly geeky adult male is dressed nicely and impeccably, clutching in his hands a bouquet of flowers that must have cost an arm and leg.

Or nothing, when you're Crown Prince of the Fire Nation.

"Zuko, hi," Mai says and her mother glares daggers at her. "You look... good."

Her mother looks utterly aghast when she sees her daughter in such disarray. A twitch of her eyebrow, the inability to notice the slight blush on Zuko's cheeks despite Mai not looking like her mother's perfect doll.

"Happy birthday. I brought you these," Zuko says, thrusting the flowers towards Mai. She takes them and examines the petals closely as her mother mouths the words she is supposed to say at them.

"Oh, wonderful, dead flowers to remind me of my ever-approaching mortality," Mai says, forcibly looking away from her mother, whose jaw might as well have just hit the flawless stone floor.

"That's, uh..." Zuko says, rubbing his neck.

"Kind of the perfect birthday gift. What is a birthday other than a celebration of the inevitability of death?" Mai continues dryly and her mother looks physically pained.

"It's just, uh, you know, the socially appropriate thing," Zuko says, rubbing his neck and Mai studies him for a moment.

"Prince Zuko," Mai's mother interjects and he can see the brief glimmer of frustration in Mai's amber eyes, "why don't you go into the kitchen and my servants will get you something to drink, while Mai goes to make herself look more presentable for her future husband."

"With all due respect, I think Mai looks beautiful right now," Zuko says and Mai tries to force the gooey feeling out of her stomach. _Nope, nope, nope_. She will not let herself by wooed by Zuko, her geeky betrothed.

"You are such a gentleman, Prince Zuko," mother continues, slapping on his title with gusto in her words. Mai is mentally throttling her despite her blank expression. "Mai is beyond honored to have you."

"I'll go to the kitchen then," Zuko says, waving weakly at Mai. She stares after him for a little too long and feels like an idiot.

Zuko is gone and Mai's mother turns to her with the rage of a thousand fires in her eyes. Mai just stares forward, pretending to have no idea that she did anything wrong. That always serves her best when her mother is angry with her.

"The _inevitability of your own mortality_?" is all mother manages to say and Mai just shrugs.

"It was the first compliment I thought of, mother," Mai says in her most serious tone and mother makes a sound like an angry cat in the back of her throat.

"Go to your room and put on make-up. If the crown prince wishes to take you on a surprise date, then you will go with him," mother says sharply, pointing ferociously at the stairs.

Mai slinks away, hating that she is complying.

[X]

"I don't know why I listen to her," Mai complains as Zuko teaches her how to skip rocks in Sozin Memorial Meadow. They sit at a pond, surrounded by living flowers, and with their fingers sticky with the dust from fire gummies they bought from a vendor. "She's... you know, never mind. It isn't like I really care."

"Do you care about anything?" Zuko asks, sounding genuinely curious. "I'm sorry for just dropping in with no warning. You seemed... kind of shocked. I know it's not really polite for someone to just show up at someone else's house with flowers and ─"

Mai cuts him off with one of the most passionate kisses she has ever given.

"I do care about things. I care about Azula and Ty Lee, and my knife collection, and sleeping... and you," Mai admits, her cheeks flushing a light pink. "Even when you drop in without warning and bring me dead flowers."

Zuko gazes at the water, blushing as well.

[X]

"Okay, okay, I _know _you hate surprises," is what Mai wakes up to on her birthday. Zuko's gravelly voice as he pushes open the door to Mai's bedroom.

She is in her bed in the palace, separate sleeping arrangements from her husband because of disgusting and altogether boring traditions. She is a princess, he is a prince, and they never act like it at any times, because the roles simply do not suit them.

"But you're giving me a birthday surprise anyway," Mai sighs, sitting up and staring blankly at him. "That's such attentive gift giving, Zuko. You know exactly how to give a girl what she wants."

Zuko shakes his head slowly and shuts the door behind him before presenting her with cut flowers.

"Oh, wonderful, dead flowers," Mai remarks.

"To remind you of your ever-approaching mortality," Zuko says proudly, setting them on her lap. The stems drip onto her silk sheets and she usually would be disgusted, but, as for now, she does not mind. "What else are birthdays for?"

"Beats me," Mai replies with a shrug, and she slowly kneels to kiss him on his weakly smiling lips.


End file.
